Means for coaling ships at sea.



mm n ms. H Patented Dec. 30, m2

' A. C. CUNNINGHAM.

MEANS FORBOALINGSI'IIPS AT SEA v (Applicltion filed Oct. 26. 1901A (NoModel.)

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' HHEHHHIHHHHHI:'I IIIHH H |I 140. 717,356." Pten ted Dec. 30,1902;

A. c. CUNNINGHAM. j'

.MEANS FOR CUALING SHIPS AT SEA (Application filed Oct. 26, lom (NoModel.) 3 Sheets-heet 2.

- I i 1 "a" s MH'I'I'I H'I; M hlr wj W Patented Doc. 30, 1902;.

A.-c. CUNNI NGHAM. MEANS. FOR COALINGSHIPS AT SEA.

7 {Application filedoct. 26, 1901.)

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(ljo Model.)

UNITED STATES PATENT O FICE,

ANDREW O. CUNlQ'INGHATI, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.-

MEANScFOR COALlNG SHIPS AT SEA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 717,356, dated December30, 1902. Application filed October 26, 1901. Serial No. 80.067. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that 1, ANDREW O. QUNNING- HAM, a citizen of the UnitedStates,residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Coaling Ships at Sea;and I do hereby declare the following to bea full,clear,

and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to the art of coaling ships of war,.merchantmen,and other seagoing vessels in the open'water, where'moorings oranchorages are impossible and where it is necessary to take on coalwhile under way or drifting. It is not particularly concerned with themeans employed for transferring the coal from one vessel to another, buthas to do with the connection of the ves-' be secured together at suchdistance apart as not to interfere with-each other in pitching orrolling; second, that the connection between them should be such thateach is free to pitch and roll independently of the other or at least sothat the effect of such movements of one upon the other is minimized asfar as the conditions will permit, and, third,

thatthe established distance and relation between the two shall besubstantially maintained throughout the coaling process in order to holdthe vesselsapart and for keeping the e evated carriers employed in theoperation, on the one hand, as nearly taut as possi- We, and, on theother, without imposing such strains on the apparatus as to endanger itssafety.

Many different plans have been proposed for coaling ships at sea, but somany difliculties have been encountered in realizing the aboveconditions when coaling athwartships the open water.

" or beam when not under way that the plan of coaling in tow-that is tosay, steaming ahead at a slow rate with one vessel towing the other-hasbeen decided. upon as practically the only feasible plan to meet thevarying conditions encountered at sea. This plan is, however,objectionable for many reasons unnecessary to here recount. On the otherhand, the advantages of eoaling sidewise or with the'ships abeam areobvious and .of great importance, especially when time is an object andit is desirable to eifect the operation when not under headway.

The present invention therefore relates to the latter plan; anditconsists, broadly stated, in means for connecting the vessels abeam orside by side at a sufficient distance apart to eliminate the danger'ofinterference with each other due to the pitching, rolling, orother-necessary movements of either, said means being any sortofflexible connection between thevessels to preventthem from movingfarther apart, combined with means for instituting or creating andmaintaining a lateral pressure between either or both the vesse'ls andthe surrounding water, tending to force them apart against the tensionof the connecting-cable. I

In carrying out the invention I employ a chain cable, rope hawser, orany other sort of flexible connection between the vessels, and althoughthe invention is not limited to the employment of any particular meansfor creat ing the force tending to hold the vessels apart I prefer toemploy a modification of an old hydraulic apparatus that has beenproposed in many difierent forms as a steering auxiliary in maneuveringships at dock or in The manner in which I make this connection betweenthe vessels and the way in which I prefer to install and operatethehydraulic apparatus for forcing the ves-' sels apart are illustratedin the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure l is a. sectional view ofa battle-ship and collierconnected together in the way contemplated bythe invention and showing one form of hydraulic apparatus. Fig. 2 is asimilar view showing the battle-ship provided with another form ofhydraulic apparatus,

Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are diagrammatic plan views illustrating the generaloperation of the in vention, the third figure showing only thebattle-ship provided with a hydraulic apparatus, the fourth showing bothships provided with similar apparatus, and the fifth Showing twobattle-ships coaling simultaneously from the same collier, the shipsonly being provided with hydraulic apparatus.

Referring first to Fig. 1, a denotes a pipe located in the hold belowdecks and having an intake a through the bottom of the ship near thekeel. This pipe extends clear across the ship and has outlets (b on eachside above the bilge. The intake portion of the pipe extends verticallya short distance, and an ordi nary propeller wheel or screw 1') isarranged therein Wit-h its shaft projecting upwardly above thehorizontal portion of the pipe, where it is connected with suitablegearing, so as to take power from any of the engines aboard ship. lowthe screw with a valve 17 for shutting off the entrance of water, andthe outlet ends of the pipe are provided with similar valves 11 b Thesethree valves are here shown as sliding gate-valves; but obviously anyother form of valves might be employed. The shaft of the screw shouldpreferably have suitable bearings for its lower end in the intake-pipe,as well as other bearings above the screw for intermediate portions, andI prefer to locate grids or coarse strainers c in the intake below thescrew to prevent the clogging of the pipe or screw by the entrance offish, weeds, or other foreign bodies. It is also desirable to locatesimilar strainers at the outlet ends of the horizontal portions of thepipe.

In Fig. 2 a somewhat different form of this apparatus is shown. (tdenotes the same horizontal pipe; but the vertical intake is dispensedwith and in its place a depression or bend a is made in the pipe aboutcentrally of its length and the screw Z)" is arranged to workhorizontally, its shaft having hearings in the lower walls of the bend.In this modification the same sliding gate-valves L 1) are employed, andthe operation ofthe apparatus is precisely the same as that shown inFig. 1, except in the following particulars.

In the modification shown in Fig. l the ends 0. a are outlets only, andthe water enters always at the intake a. In thisarrangement also thescrew 1) is so geared up as. to be rotated always in one direction, andthe direction of. the outflow is controlled entirely by the valves 5 If,the port valve being closed when the outflow is to starboard and thestarboard valve being closed when the outflow is to port. In themodification shown in Fig. 2 the water is taken in always at one sideand discharged at the other, and the direction of flow is controlled byreversing the rotation of the screw. In this arrangement alsothe valvesb 1) are differently operated, for both must be opened and closedtogether, since each operates sometimes as an intake-valve and sometimesas an outlet-valve. It is be The intake is also provided be- Referringto this view,

lieved that neither of these forms of apparatus requires any furtherdescription of its construction or operation, and I will thereforeproceed to describe the manner of utilizin the same in the carr in outof my invent-ion, it being understood that in the light of my inventioneither apparatus is to be regarded merely as a means for moving ortending to move the ship whereon it is installed sidewise away from thevessel to which it is connected while. neither of the vessels hassteerage or headway.

Referring now to Figs. 2 to 5, A A denote battle-ships, and B 13indicate the colliers from which the coal is to be taken. In Figs. 2, 3,and 5 the ships are shown provided with the above-described hydraulicjet apparatus for moving them laterally; but it is to be un-. derstoodthat the colliers may also have similar apparatus, as indicated in Fig.4. It is preferable toinstall one of these jet apparatuses in the bowand one in the stern of each of the vessels; but I do not regard theinvention as limited to the use of any particular 'number of suchdevices or to any particular location of the same on board ship, and Ido not int-end my claims to be restricted in either of theseparticulars.

In all the figuresabove referred to C C denote guy-lines that are madefast, preferably at or about the deck-line, to the collier and the shipto be coaled. .There may be any number of these lines, but two'willusually suliice, one forward and the other aft, as shown in thedrawings. These lines form the means and the only means contemplated bymy invention for connecting or securing the vessels together, and theonly essential requirement (apart from their strength) is that theyshall be flexible, so as to permit the vessole, or either of them, toroll toward each other and of sufficient length to localize the shipswith respect to each other, so as to eliminate all danger ofinterference due to the rolling, pitching, or other movements of either.

To this end these lines may be ordinary rope hawsers of appropriatematerial and dimensions or chain cables, and they may be made fast atany convenient point on either vessel. The length of these cablesdepends so largely upon the size of the vessels and the conditions ofweather and water prevailing at the time that no particular rule as tolength can be laid down, except that it must be such as to locate thevessels so far apart that there shall be no danger of interferencef'romany of the causes above mentioned. NVithin the limits of this rule thenearer the shipsare together the more easily and speedily the coalingcan proceed. As will be understood from the character of thisconnection, the only function of these cables is to prevent the shipsfrom-moving apart, and the flexibility of the connection is essential inordeii= hatthe ships may roll toward each other. Itis noti intendcdordesired ICO that the ships shall move bodily toward each other,-because, apart from the danger of such end I employ any form ofhydraulic appara-,v

movement, the .successful operation of the coal -transferring devicesdepends largely upon the maintenance of a substantially uniform.distance apart, and it is. in this respect that the greatest value of myinvention is found. For the 'purposelof maintaining this separation ofthe two vessels experience has demonstrated that under ordinaryconditions it is out of thequestionto employ'any force or means reactingbetween the vessels themselves, and the gist of my invention in thisrespect therefore consists in the employment of a force reacting betweenone of the vessels (it matters not which) and the surrounding water onthe side toward the other vessel. To this tus (of which thoseillustratedin the ac- -companyingdrawings may be taken as a type) thatwill throw a jet of water, as D in all the lfigures, from the side ofthe vessel at a point below the'surface into the surrounding water. Inorder to produce the best results,

the p'oint'at which these jets issue should be.

at or. near the center of lateral resistance of the ship, thesizeandvelocity of these jets depending, of course, upon the size of thepipes and the number of revolutionsof the screw, and, as will bereadilyunderstood, this is entirely iinderconti-ol and may be regulated andstop'p'ed'and started whenever and as desired, having in mind that theprincipal object of this apparatus is to maintain the ships apart at orsubstantially at the distance that is predetermined and fixed by thelength of the connecting-cables, so as to keep the etbles substantiallytaut or at least to keep the ships so far apart that although they arefastened together there shall be no 1 any particular distance.

tended to push the vessels apart with suilicient force to put any greatstrain on the eonofdanger fr'oin'collision.

liability of their approaching within the limit It is not intended thatthe vessel's should be so close together-that the jets D issuing fromthe'side of one should have any direct influence upon the other, thoughI donot desire to limit myself to the maintenance of Neither is itinnectin -cahles. A safe workim rule in this b ca respect will be toregulate the speed of the screw in the pipe so as to throw a jet whosereaction between its own vessel and the waapart is concerned they ,areeonnected together' by a practically rigid connection, limcarried onwhile the ships are under way as tors Patent, is-

iting their movement in that direction; third, that as to all necessarymovements toward each othen they are,- in effect, unconnected, sothat'each is free to move independently ofthe other, and, finally, thatby the employment of the described hydraulic jet apparatus the vesselsare kept apart by an elastic force that, is regulable according toexisting conditions and which reactson the surrounding medium withoutliability to jar or strain any part of either vessel" and greatlytending to steady both. It is further to be noted that, as indicated inFig. 5, the invention permits the simultaneous coaling of the two shipsfrom one c'ollier, one ship on each side thecollier, and also that theoperation of coaling may be well as while they are at rest. Y

Although I have herein shown the hydraulic apparatus as only adapted tothrow the jetsat right angles to the-keel of its own vessel, I may, ifdesired, direct them at angles forward or aftyit not being at allnecessary that the direction of the jets should fall within the lines ofthe opposing vesseh \Vhat-I claim, and desire to secure by Let- 9 1. Thecombination of a ship to be coaled, a collier or supply-ship, a flexibleconnection athwartships between said ships of sufficient length topermit both ships toroll and pitch without interference with each.other, and 5 means for creating a lateral pressure between one of theships and the surrounding water on the side toward the other shipsuflicient to maintain them at such distance apart. 2. The combinationof a ship to becoaled, I00

a eollier or supply-ship, a flexible connectionathwartships between saidships of sufficient length to permit'both ships to roll and pitchwithout interference with each other, and

means for creating alateral pressure between [05 each of said ships andthe surroundin-g'water on the side toward the other ship suificient tomaintain them at such distance apart.

3. The combination, to form afmeans for coaling ships "in the openwater, of three no ships, flexible connections athwartships be-- tweensaid ships securing themtogether at sufficient distances apart to permiteach to roll and pitch without interference with the others, and meansfor creating a lateral pressure between the outside ships and thesurrounding water on the side toward the other ships sufficient tomaintain them at such distances apart,

In testimony whereof I aifiig-my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ANDREW o. OUNNiNGI-liAM.

Witnesses:

EDWIN S. C-LARKSON, J. A. 'GoLnssonoucn.

